Today, people often use wireless communication so that connections may be easily established between various electronic device. In a home setting, a wireless network may carry music, video, financial, and other data between devices that can be set up in any room in the house without any special network wiring. In a business setting, a wireless network allows users of portable computers to access servers, databases, printers and other network devices from any office, conference room or other work space. Similarly, users of portable electronic devices, such as PDAs and SmartPhones, may use wireless networks to synchronize their portable electronic devices with desktop computers or other devices that they do not carry with them.
However, the same ease of communication that allows wireless networks to be used in many settings creates a security risk. Unauthorized users may also take advantage of the ease of establishing connections wirelessly to gain access to networked information or devices for malicious purposes. For this reason, people utilizing wireless communications demand security. Data exchange between devices should be protected from eavesdropping and impersonation. For example, an unauthorized user may engage in what is sometimes called a “man in the middle” attack. As part of a man in the middle attack, an unauthorized user monitors authorized communications between two devices to obtain sufficient information about parameters used by those devices to communicate to enable the unauthorized user to emulate one or both of the authorized devices.
To reduce the possibility of unauthorized access, many wireless devices use keys, security settings or other cryptographic information to restrict access to wireless communications. While such information can reduce the probability that an unauthorized user will improperly gain access to a wireless network, the security information may be transmitted wirelessly. If transmissions containing security information are intercepted by an unauthorized user, the user may still be able to gain unauthorized access through the wireless network.